League of Women Voters Applauds Judicial Commission

Add the League of Women Voters to the list of those pleased with the Assembly and Senate approving a commission that will study judicial pay raises.

Judges in the state haven’t a had a raise in dozen years and advocates believe a pay increase would help retain good jurists. Historically, judicial pay raises have been tied to legislative pay raises.

The good-government group issued a statement this afternoon applauding the move. Earlier, Court of Appeals Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, a childhood friend of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said it was a”real reform.”

Here’s the statement from the group:

The League of Women Voters of New York State congratulates the state legislature on passage in Monday’s special session of the Quadrennial Commission for Judicial Compensation to determine fair and equitable compensation for our judges and justices. The League is proud of its five-year role in pressing for passage of legislation that provides a fair and objective process to determine the compensation of our judiciary.

New York judges and justices have not received pay increases for more than eleven years. This Commission will take the politics out of the process of determining judicial compensation and will preserve the independence of the judiciary by breaking the link to legislative pay raises.

The League of Women Voters of NYS applauds Governor Paterson for including the reform measure on the extraordinary session agenda and thanks Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader John Sampson for their action. Finally the League thanks Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman for his tireless work to achieve this ground breaking reform depoliticizing the process by which judges are compensated.